Spec a Card for my Dad

[kitkat9933]

My Dad is currently building a new spec for the following purposes:

. Running Multiple VM'S
. Programming ( enthusiast)
. Ability to Run 3 1440p Monitors.
. Future Proof
. Silent as possible preferably.

He has a 3930k with an ASUS RIVE.

He won't be really doing anything graphically intensive. Just as above. There isn't really a budget and he doesn't care Red or Green.


Thanks in advance.

~James~

 

[oldestgregg]

Maybe its because I have come from a ref model 7970 but I have found the Gigabyte windforce 7970 to be super quiet and a bargain at £299!

 

[kitkat9933]

Maybe its because I have come from a ref model 7970 but I have found the Gigabyte windforce 7970 to be super quiet and a bargain at £299!

He doesn't require that much power.

Currently looking at something like a 7850. NVIDIA doesn't really offer something similar for the same price with the same amount of outputs.

 

[mysticsniper]

The best card for your money is probably the Gigabyte 7950, especially if you want it to last a few years.

 

[kitkat9933]

The best card for your money is probably the Gigabyte 7950, especially if you want it to last a few years.

Trying to think whether the 7950 is worth the £80 more, for his uses anyway.

 

[mysticsniper]

Trying to think whether the 7950 is worth the £80 more, for his uses anyway.

It seems that your dad is gonna need a fair bit of juice to run 3 monitors and multiple VM's.

To me, it seems a no brainer, when you consider the small amount you have to pay extra, for such a cracking card.

 

[kitkat9933]

Umm not sure really what to go for.

 

[weehamish]

660 is really similar, they are £40 apart now but were around the same a few months back, wait a bit if you can and maybe they will drop again?

 

[spoffle]

So he just needs the cards JUST for monitor outputs?

If so, a 7850 is also very expensive for that purpose.

What monitors is he going for?

I'd imagine the cheapest and most straight forward solution would be for him to just get 3 of these;

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-271-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1711

I can't find a card that seems to supports more than 2x 2560x1440 monitors that isn't above £100, and below £100, all of them seem to only support one natively.

You'd also be able to avoid having to use DP to DVI-D adapters which aren't cheap (you'd have to pay at least £40 each and need at the very least one, more likely 2).

Those DP to DVI-D adapters aren't the most reliable things either.

 

[spoffle]

I would choose a more 'pro' solution if you're not going to be doing any gaming on there. The Matrox M9138/M9148 would fit your need and is completely fanless albeit a little pricey but does get you 3x/4x dp which is what I'm guessing you want for 3x1440p monitors.

It'd be a waste of money. Three of the cards I suggested seems to be by far the most sensible solution.

Depending on the monitors, he could only have an option of DL DVI without adapters, and DP is certainly not a must, it'd be more expensive to go for something that has multiple DP outs just for the sake of having DP outputs.

Any 2560x1440 monitor with a DP in will also have a DL DVI in anyway.

You could also get two fanless quadro NVS300, or a more expensive fanless quadro NVS420/450/510.

The cards I suggested are fanless.

The ATI cards do seem quite good at the >1200p multimonitor on the cheap unfortunately all have a fan

See above.

having to deal with ATI drivers...

You should cut the rubbish and try to avoid making such silly claims again.

If you did your research you'd realise nVidia actually have a worse driver track record than AMD.

May I be the first to mention had you chosen an ivybridge instead of the more expensive sandybridge-ep you wouldn't have this issue

The reason no one has mentioned it is because he has a 3930K, or a 6 core, 12 thread CPU, which means a socket 2011, X79 board is a must.

 

[kitkat9933]

He will be using 2 x 1440p Monitors with the possibility of adding a 3rd in the future.

He will be using in the PCI-E Slots, 1 GPU, 1 Sound card, 1 SATA 3 Expansion Card, and 1 PCI-E SSD card. So he only will really have room for 1 GPU.

He using a Sandybridge-E because the pure performance will be needed for his virtualisation work.

There really isn't a price a limit. But obviously the cheaper the better. Tbh there is no point going for the professional GPU's as the added features at added cost are of no real use to him hence why i'm trying to stay in the enthusiast line of cards.

 

[Orcvader]

I don't really see the point in needing so much GPU grunt for VMs, unless he needs them all to be hardware accelerated.

There's this card but only one port can do 1440p: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-309-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1985

Unless my eyes are playing tricks on me and that HDMI adapter actually does convert it to a Dual-link DVI...

Sorry if you've already stated before but what monitors will he be using? If you have Displayport on them it may make this easier.

 

[spoffle]

He will be using 2 x 1440p Monitors with the possibility of adding a 3rd in the future.

He will be using in the PCI-E Slots, 1 GPU, 1 Sound card, 1 SATA 3 Expansion Card, and 1 PCI-E SSD card. So he only will really have room for 1 GPU.

He using a Sandybridge-E because the pure performance will be needed for his virtualisation work.

There really isn't a price a limit. But obviously the cheaper the better. Tbh there is no point going for the professional GPU's as the added features at added cost are of no real use to him hence why i'm trying to stay in the enthusiast line of cards.

The ASUS RIVE has 5x 16x sized slots, and 1x 1x sized slots, and those 3 cards I suggested are all single slot, so he'd have enough room have 3 of those cards, plus a PCI-E SSD, soundcard, and SATA 3 expansion no problem.